Strangeness & Charm
by E Salvatore
Summary: As Champion of the Labyrinth, Sarah is given one wish - no strings attached, no hidden repercussions, no consequences to haunt her and her family. She chooses to spend the next 13 years exploring the thousands of worlds the Labyrinth is connected to. No strings, no repercussions, no consequences - just one condition: the Goblin King is to accompany her on all her travels.
1. Chapter 1

**ONE**

* * *

 _Lady Sarah Williams of the Aboveground –_

 _Congratulations on your recent triumph over the ancient Labyrinth._

 _In acknowledgement of your rare feat, we wish to reward you with a prize worthy of the Champion of the Labyrinth. We hereby offer you one wish of your choice, to be granted at no cost to yourself or your loved ones._

 _Please contact King Jareth of the Goblin Kingdom, Keeper of the Labyrinth, to discuss your wish at your earliest convenience._

* * *

The letter is unsigned, and trying to figure out just who might be responsible for this missive keeps Sarah awake for four consecutive nights.

It's only been a week since her adventure in the Labyrinth, but already she can feel her memories of that evening growing… fuzzy around the edges, like the precious few pictures and newspaper clippings she has of her mother, the ones she relegated to a small chest the day after her return. She can feel her adventure slipping from her mind like sand through one's fingers, and with every passing day she grows more desperate to keep the magic alive, to keep her life from going back to what it was before.

When she realizes it's been less than two weeks and she's already struggling to remember her friends' voices, Sarah knows exactly what she has to do.

Forget the potential repercussions, forget the fact that this might be a trap, forget the fear that grips her heart at the thought of dealing with the Goblin King once more. The idea of having magic grace her life only for her to forget about it entirely scares Sarah more than any of those things, and she's saying the words before she can fully realize what she's about to get herself into.

"I wish the Goblin King would come and talk to me."

.

.

.

As it turns out, being given the chance to wish for _anything_ can be quite overwhelming.

Their first meeting is spent outlining the limitations of her reward (of which there are very, very few) and the potential consequences (practically non-existent, the Goblin King assures her). There might be a condition or two attached to her wish, but that would depend upon the nature of the request itself. By the time Sarah has thoroughly questioned her once-nemesis about this wish, it's late and she's way too tired to think of something.

The second time they meet, Jareth – he insists – offers to take her back to the Labyrinth. It wouldn't count as her wish, merely an invitation extended from Keeper to Champion for her to properly learn all about the magical entity she has now forged a lifelong bond with. Sarah has just enough self-restraint to secure Jareth's word that he'll send her back to her own time and space the minute she asks him to before she's eagerly travelling between worlds and running around the Labyrinth to seek out her friends. They don't do much talking that time – Jareth trailing behind her with the occasional long-suffering sigh as she tracks down all of her friends – but something tells Sarah he doesn't really mind. She even catches the occasional fond smile on him whenever he doesn't realize she's looking, but somehow she finds a way to convince herself that it must have been a trick of the light or something.

Finally, the day of their third meeting arrives. Summer's nearly over, and it's only a matter of days before Sarah will have to go back to school. She's determined to settle the matter of her wish before then, to know what the year ahead will have in store for her. Jareth transports her to a remote section of the Labyrinth, one that's entirely inaccessible by anyone other than the Keeper and Champion, and offers to share the true nature of the Labyrinth to buy Sarah a little more time.

"What's beyond the Labyrinth?" Sarah asks instead, wondering if there's even such a thing. It feels like the structure stretches on forever, or perhaps it's ever growing at a rate faster than anyone can possibly travel and that's why it feels endless.

"In this world? Nothing," Jareth tells her cryptically, offering her the tiniest hint of a smile when she huffs at him in irritation, somewhat accustomed to his manner of speaking by now. He doesn't charge for information, but it doesn't exactly come at no cost either – the price is dedication and time, and the willingness to pry and question and piece together seemingly unrelated answers until they form a complete picture. In some ways, every conversation with Jareth is like a game of twenty questions.

It takes Sarah a while to make sense of his first clue, but she gets there eventually. "So you're saying the Labyrinth leads to other worlds?"

Jareth practically beams at her in approval. "Precisely. The Labyrinth seems endless to the naked eye, but if you look closer you might see a flicker here and there, in places where it appears to stretch beyond your field of vision," He offers her his hand, and suddenly they're in his castle, standing before a truly magnificent view of the Labyrinth. "Anything beyond the flicker is no longer entirely the Labyrinth; the flicker is the veil between worlds – the doorway, if you will – and beyond that is another world entirely. You see, that is all the Labyrinth – and the Underground, to a certain extent – really is: a gateway to all the worlds your kind sealed away when you drove magic out from the Above."

Sarah takes a closer look. Closer, and closer, and closer, until she's squinting so hard her forehead is lined with effort. And slowly, the flickers reveal themselves to her, shimmering spots all over the endless structure she's grown to love and admire and fear.

"So all of those flickers – like that one and that one and that one –" She points them out at random, picking the ones with the most intense concentration of shimmers. "All of them are gateways to different worlds?" Her voice is rising with excitement, with exhilaration, with anticipation.

"All those, and a hundred thousand more," Jareth nods.

"A hundred thousand more," Sarah echoes faintly, her mind struggling to wrap itself around the concept as she surveys the shimmering Labyrinth once more. It seems like another flicker reveals itself to her with every passing second, and Sarah grows more certain of her decision with every new and unknown world that shimmers invitingly at her.

She turns to Jareth with her shoulders held high and her mind made up. "I know what I want."

"Are you sure?" The Goblin King asks, equal parts teasing and serious, one eyebrow raised in question.

Sarah nods. "I'm sure. I want to travel to all of those worlds, to see all the wonderful and strange things the universe has to offer."

Jareth studies her for the longest while, tilting his head in a birdlike manner at some point. Finally, he seems to find whatever it is he was searching for in her determined eyes. "Very well. However, the universe is limitless and your wish is not. I can offer you thirteen years of uninhibited access to the gateways of the Labyrinth, and nothing more."

A hundred thousand worlds in thirteen years. It'll be a challenge, but Sarah has accomplished equally impossible-sounding tasks in significantly less time. After all, that's how she got herself into this situation in the first place. "Deal," She decides, offering Jareth her hand.

"One last thing," He tells her, eyeing her proffered hand with a gleam in his eyes that betrays his amusement at her impatience. "A condition, if you will. I am to accompany you on all of your travels."

Sarah narrows her eyes at him warily, to which the Goblin King holds up one hand in a wordless request for peace.

"I swear to you, right here and right now, with the Labyrinth as my witness, that I have no ulterior motives, no malicious intent. So long as your wish is being granted by my powers, you are under my care, and I cannot allow any harm to come to you. Some of these worlds will be dangerous for a mortal – hostile, even. I only ask that you allow me to accompany you to ensure your safety."

Sarah's known the guy for less than three months – hell, she doesn't even know if he's a guy or a goblin or some kind of faerie – but she trusts him. Jareth is many things, but a liar is not one of them. So she raises her hand once more, holds it out to him while her eyes maintain unwavering eye contact.

"Do we have an agreement, Goblin King?"

Jareth smiles, a slow curve of his lips and a twinkle in his eyes. He removes one glove and curls his bare fingers around Sarah's hand.

"I believe we do, my dear Champion."

* * *

 **So I've had this idea in the back of my mind for a little over a year now, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to sit down and write what was originally supposed to be a really long, really elaborate and detailed and whimsical one-shot. However, I realized I'm never going to find the time to do that and my attention span is crap, so now it's going to be three or four chapters of snippets instead. I hope you'll like it anyway. Feel free to drop by the comments below; I could use some human interaction that isn't work- or family-related.**

 **Psst – I suck at maintaining my FFN account so if you wanna read the next chapter the minute it's done, go find me over at AO3. I'm E_Salvatore.**

 **P.S: the t** **itle's from Florence + The Machine's "Strangeness and Charm".**


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO**

* * *

"So," Sarah finds herself back in the Labyrinth just two days later, a bag of supplies resting on her shoulders and a ball of nerves and excitement churning in her stomach, "where to first?"

Jareth's gaze briefly flits down to her right foot – excess energy tapping out an irregular beat – before his lips curl into something between a smile and a smirk, all obvious amusement and hidden fondness. "I was rather under the impression that you would be in charge of that."

Sarah blinks. "I mean, yeah, I'll pick, but first you've got to tell me what my options are. I can't just randomly point at a gateway… can I?" She sounds equally excited and scared by the prospect, and Jareth lets out a short huff of laughter as he shakes his head at her and offers her his hand.

"Oh, precious," He chuckles, and it's the first time in a long time that he's called her anything but her name but she can't bring herself to point it out or discourage him, can't risk doing anything that might wipe that genuine smile off his face or extinguish the spark in his eyes. "You can do absolutely _anything_ you want, as long as you stay by my side."

Funny, how an idea that once sounded so revolting can seem almost tempting with a little less "let's be each other's slaves" and a little more "just stay with me". But of course that isn't what he meant – not that he ever meant it in the first place, even when it was revolting and frightening and too much, too fast – so Sarah just blinks, shrugs, and points at the nearest cluster of flickers.

"That one," She declares, and leads the way fearlessly. After all, she's safe so long as Jareth is right behind her. That's definitely what he meant, right?

There's no door for her to open, no threshold to cross, nothing to mark the end of one world and the beginning of another except for an oddly familiar _whoosh_ as she steps into the flickers. It feels like the blast of cold air that greets her whenever she steps into a mall, but instead of the usual assortment of stores she's met with the sight of…

"Spaceships?" Sarah gasps, turning back to Jareth for confirmation. She moves too fast and he moves too slow, and her hands come up to brace themselves on his chest before she can fall face-first into her former nemesis. "Oops," She squeaks as his hands reach for her shoulders to stabilize her.

Jareth smiles. "Spaceships," He echoes affirmatively, but something tells her maybe the curve of his lips has more to do with her little blunder than her childlike excitement. Sarah pushes the thought out of her mind – she might be newly sixteen and dealing with out of control hormones and developing a bit of a crush, but there's no way in hell she's going to let that get in the way of this experience.

"Is this… the future?" She asks, craning her neck to get a better look at all the ships that dot the unfamiliar sky. Some of them seem to literally blink out of existence as they speed their way past the atmosphere, while others are flying so low and at such comparatively slower speeds that Sarah can't tell if they're spaceships or flying cars.

"We're travelling through space, not time," Jareth reminds her, voice hushed as he comes to stand by her side.

It might not be exactly what she was expecting for her first trip, but the purple sky and futuristic spaceships and dozens of unfamiliar-looking beings are still pretty damn magical, Sarah decides.

"C'mon," She tugs on Jareth's hand without quite realizing it, eyes already trained on the adventures that await them. "I want to see _everything_."

.

.

.

"What's Hell like?" Sarah asks Jareth over lunch one day. They do this sometimes, have a little picnic in his castle while she looks out the window and tries to narrow down her options for the day. Oh, if only Young Sarah could see her now: sitting cross-legged on the floors of the Goblin Castle, sharing a meal with the Goblin King himself, watching him choke on a grape-

"Oh, crap," It takes some effort and a lot of balance to lean over the food and reach her hand around Jareth, but she manages to give his back a good few thumps eventually. "Are you okay?" She asks, handing him a glass of water before moving back to her spot.

"Nothing to worry about," Jareth tries to assure her, voice hoarse and face the slightest bit red. "I just wasn't expecting that, is all," He adds after a long sip of water. "Why do you ask?"

She shrugs, hoping to feign nonchalance. "Just a random thought. I mean, if the Labyrinth is the gateway to all worlds, one of these portals has got to lead to Hell, right?"

Jareth eyes her with a familiar wariness. After all the trouble she's gotten them into in the past year, she can't really blame him for being cautious. "If we're talking strictly about Hell as most humans know it," He sighs, resigning himself to whatever madness this 'random thought' of hers will lead to, "then no, it does not."

"A-ha!" Sarah cries victoriously before popping a grape into her mouth, careful to chew and swallow before she speaks again. "So there's no Hell, but there _is_ some kind of afterlife or whatever out there."

"Is there _any_ chance I might talk you out of this? There's a lovely oceanic world I've been meaning to-"

"Next time," She waves dismissively, brushing crumbs off her fingers as she leaps to her feet. "I wanna see my future home first."

Something flashes in Jareth's eyes at the casual mention of her inevitable death. She wonders sometimes if her mortality bothers him, if maybe he'll miss her when she's gone and he's left with an eternity stretching ahead of him and no annoying teenage girl to help him pass the time. A part of her wishes he will, wishes that this – that _she_ – will be more than just another forgettable chapter in his long life; a bigger part of her works overtime to squash that selfish desire and the messy feelings responsible for it.

Sarah shakes the thought away, and Jareth blinks away whatever it is her words have evoked in him. She pulls him up to his feet and soon enough they're in the Labyrinth.

"Lead the way, Goblin King."

"Oh, I won't be the guide this time," Jareth smirks. "No living creature except one can locate the way to the realm of the dead."

It's second nature at this point, to catch his hand in her own as they start wandering around. She can reason it away, can tell both of them it's just a reflex after nearly getting separated from him one too many times in a crowd, but that won't change the fact that her heart starts racing every time he laces his fingers through hers. She really, really wishes this stupid crush would just _die_ already.

"Okay, I'll bite," Sarah grins. "Which creature?"

Just then, a flash of black zooms past them and turns a right into one of the Labyrinth's many winding paths. "That one," Jareth says as he pulls her into a run.

"A _cat_?"

Jareth flashes her a rare smile – toothy and too wide and complete with mirth in his eyes – as they chase after their tiny guide. "Cats are very good at going where they shouldn't go," He explains with a shrug, and Sarah thinks about the cat Karen's recently gotten and decides to go along with it.

Sure enough, the cat leads them to the afterlife. Sarah's a bit too distracted by the way Jareth holds her hand the entire time to truly focus on the world she'll someday spend the rest of eternity in without him. A small voice in her head tells her she's deliberately not making any real memories with him here so that she won't miss him when she comes back and he doesn't. A louder voice covers her ears and sings some dreadfully off-key melody to drown the other one out.

.

.

.

"Can we go somewhere nice for a few days?" Sarah asks the day after finals, shoulders slumped with the combined weight of her weekend bag and the stress of the last few days. She flings the bag to the ground and practically collapses into the chaise lounge she's claimed as hers.

"Won't your sudden absence concern your parents?" Jareth points out distractedly, eyes still focused on whatever it is he's reading. Sometimes she forgets that he's an actual king, with a real kingdom to rule and a study constantly filled with laws and trade agreements and whatnot waiting for his attention. It occurs to her that unlike a high school senior, magical kings probably can't just take off for a few days and go somewhere nice.

"They think I'm on a road trip with my friends," She tells him, voice muffled by the pillow she's planted her face in. Suddenly, she's aware of every single ache in her shoulders, her neck… her poor, abused, overused head. "On second thought, I could just crash here. This is nice too. Keep working, just let me sleep," Sarah's out before she can hear Jareth's reply, assuming there is one.

When she wakes, the light pouring in through the floor-to-ceiling windows is considerably dimmer than the blinding afternoon sun she'd closed her eyes to. At first she thinks maybe hunger has woken her, or perhaps the call of nature. It takes a while for her to realize a hand is gently shaking her shoulder as a soft voice murmurs her name.

"Hmm?" She hums in question, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep as she stretches cramped muscles and slumbering limbs.

Jareth's face suddenly snaps into focus, hovering just a few inches above hers as he leans over the back of the chaise to address her. "I have completed my work for the day and notified the castle of my absence for the next two days. Did you have anywhere specific in mind?"

"Wait," Sarah yawns as she pulls herself upright. "You're actually up for a trip?"

"You look in need of some peace and quiet," Jareth says as he moves to sit next to her. "And a king is _always_ in need of some peace and quiet so yes, I will happily accompany you. Where do you wish to go?"

If she hadn't just woken up from a nap, Sarah would probably have some kind of reaction to Jareth taking two days away from his kingdom to go on vacation with her. As it is, she simply rests her head on his shoulder and shrugs. "You pick. Somewhere peaceful and pretty."

After a moment's thought, Jareth leans his head on hers and wraps an arm around her shoulder. "There's a kingdom built entirely on trees, an entire forest's worth of trees supporting a variety of structures and connected by an endless string of bridges. One of the Elven princes keeps a summer palace there, and his court is filled with jesters and artists and forest nymphs who will gladly share their rivers with visitors and braid flowers into their hair."

"That sounds nice," Sarah mumbles into his neck as the heavy fog of grogginess threatens to pull her under once more. "Okay, let's go to Tree House World."

Jareth laughs quietly; she feels rather than hears it, and the intimacy of the moment washes over her like a shower of freezing water, making quick work of her lingering drowsiness. "Okay," She springs up to her feet and claps her hands together like an overexcited child, hoping Jareth won't suspect the cause for her sudden flight from his arms. She's a senior now, a college student come fall, an _adult_ in just a few weeks – and adults don't let their stupid teenage crushes get in between them and their closest friend. So she shakes off the phantom weight of his arm around her and picks up her bag as Jareth stands up and straightens out his clothes, a force of habit more than anything.

"Tree House World, here we come," Sarah announces as she accepts Jareth's hand, and soon enough they're in the most beautiful, serene forest she's ever seen. They get separate rooms, spend nearly all of their time with jesters and artists and forest nymphs, and Sarah's heart only aches for something _more_ four times, as opposed to the dozens of daydreams she usually finds herself entertaining on trips like these.

It's a personal record. She takes that as a sign, and says yes when a vaguely-familiar classmate asks her out at her first college party that fall.

.

.

.

"I broke up with David," She announces one day in lieu of a greeting, causing Jareth to choke on his tea.

"Sarah," He shoots her a half-hearted glare as he waves away the drops of tea that threaten to stain his shirt. "I've told you-"

"To announce myself and never, ever take you by surprise because who knows what you might do with your super-fast reflexes and survival instincts, what if you attack me before realizing who I am, yada yada yada," Sarah rolls her eyes. "C'mon, I'm feeling adventurous today. Let's pick a random one."

Jareth huffs and scowls and crosses his arms, but follows her nonetheless when she leaves the room and heads for the closest exit.

"What did David do?" He finally asks once they've left the castle behind. "Shall I send a few goblins to give him a good scare? Perhaps throw him in the center of the Labyrinth and let him stumble around for a few hours?"

"No need for any of that," Sarah dismisses his suggestions, well-intentioned though they are. "He's a great guy, didn't do anything wrong. Maybe he even did everything right, if you ask anyone else," She nibbles on her lower lip as she considers both her words and the portal on her left. After a moment, she keeps walking. "I just… got bored, I guess."

"Bored," Jareth echoes flatly. "You got _bored_ of someone who has done nothing wrong and everything right."

Sarah turns to flash him the briefest of glares. "Hey, save the judgement for someone who hasn't seen the never-ending string of scorned and heartbroken lovers on your doorstep, Your Majesty. I just…" She sighs, all irritation and defensiveness suddenly draining out of her. "I only have ten years left to explore all of this. I have my whole life to find someone. So yeah, I got bored and picked magical adventures over date nights."

She locates an unusually dark concentration of flickers before Jareth can react to her little rant, and steps into the unknown world without a moment's hesitation. It's not like she has anything to fear -of course he'll be right behind her, of course she'll be safe as long as he's around.

It takes a while for her eyes to adjust to the darkness she has stepped into, for the blurry outlines of their surroundings to settle into trees.

"Oh, come _on_ ," She groans at the disappointing sight. And here she'd had such high hopes for this portal. "Another forest world? How many of these are there?"

"Sarah," Jareth says very, very quietly. It takes a while for her to place the unfamiliar note in his voice, to identify it as apprehension. "I don't think we should be-"

The usually reassuring weight of his hand lands on her shoulder at the exact same time cold, long fingers encircle her wrist and pull her off balance. She shrieks as she crashes to the ground, hisses when she feels a burning sensation on her inner wrist, swallows a scream when she sees Jareth fling her unknown assailant a good twenty feet away with a flick of his wrist.

"We need to leave," Jareth helps her up to her feet and hurries her back to the portal. Experience has taught her that only those travelling with the Keeper of the Labyrinth can see or use the gateways, but she can't help the shiver that travels up her spine at the thought of the creature following them.

The late afternoon sunlight is blinding but welcome after their brief run-in with darkness and things that hide in the shadows.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Sarah demands, eyeing the portal with no small amount of fear. A look at her arm reveals three red scratches from where Jareth ripped the creature's fingers away from her. "Is this bad?" She holds out her wrist for inspection.

Jareth pulls off a glove and traces the scratches with his bare fingers, angry red fading to faint pink in the wake of his touch. "That was… bad timing," He finally says, allowing Sarah's hand to drop back to her side. "It's a lovely world, usually. Unfortunately the inhabitants tend to get a little… starved during the long night."

"That thing was going to _eat_ me?"

"No, no," Jareth hurries to reassure her as he leads her away from the flickers. "Not _eat_ you, just… drain your life force."

Sarah comes to a sudden halt. "Vampires," She mutters as she slumps against a mossy patch of wall and slides to the floor. "I almost got eaten by a vampire. _Christ_ ," Her eyes widen as something occurs to her. "Jareth, you just saved my freaking life. I owe you. Big time."

"Don't be ridiculous," The Goblin King sighs as he joins her on the floor. "It is my responsibility to keep you safe, Sarah. You owe me nothing."

"Oh, _hell_ no," Sarah insists. "I'm pretty sure this counts as a life debt, and I'm not gonna have one of those hanging over me for the rest of my life. You don't have to come up with something right now, but either I find a way to return the favor before our time is up or you ask me for something. Okay?"

Jareth casts a long-suffering look at the sky. After three and a half years, he must know that they're equally matched when it comes to stubbornness. There's no way he's talking her out of this.

"If you insist," He finally agrees, voice dripping with disdain.

Much later, it occurs to Sarah that she now owes a favor to the _Goblin King_ of all people. A really, really big favor. He could ask for pretty much anything, since it's a life debt and all.

It's a good thing they're not enemies anymore.

* * *

 **So this... might be a disappointment to those of you hoping for more magical adventures, less relationship development. I know it's a disappointment to me. I originally intended for this to be 70% magical adventures, 30% relationship stuff, but I suck at world-building and writing good fantasy stuff and all that, so it looks like this is what we're stuck with. Sorry!**

 **In other news, this is going to have a total of five chapters. The next two will span years 5-8 and 9-12 of their travels, and Chapter 5 will cover their final trip and goodbyes (or maybe not).**

 **IMPORTANT: I'm barely ever on FFN anymore these days, so if you'd like to read updates as soon as they're available, please look me up over at AO3; I'm E_Salvatore there.**

 **Thanks for reading and as usual, I'd love to hear from you guys!**


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